Barking and Dagenham Council has won this year’s LGC Entrepreneurial Council Award for its ‘whole council’ approach to commercialisation.

The award recognises how councils are not only generating income but continuing to provide services to their most vulnerable residents despite huge financial challenges.

In 2016, the council initiated one of the largest transformation programmes in the sector with commercialisation and growth being at its heart. This entrepreneurial success builds on the foundations that made us Council of the Year last year. It demonstrates how you can maximise the synergies and relationships between different ventures and commercial entities as part of a single joined up commercial strategy, delivering a key part of the council’s overall growth focused transformation agenda.

Examples include work with our leisure partner SLM to build a new 50m swimming pool with an integrated District Energy Centre and our Film Office which has resulted in plans for a new studio - supporting our ambition to deliver economic growth and bring new industry to the borough.

"Over the last four years we have transformed the way the council is run"

Councillor Dominic Twomey, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services, said: “This award from the industry, validates the decisions we are taking across the council to stimulate growth by innovative methods and attract inward investment that ensures no one is left behind.

“Over the last four years, we have transformed the way the council is run, with many services unrecognisable from what they were before in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and value for money. The focus throughout this invigorating journey of transformation, is ensuring we meet the increasing demands of the most vulnerable in our community – those who depend on help and support with adult and child social care.”